6 Reasons Peeta Sucks Less In Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Have you ever seen little children fight? More often than not, they lead with their faces and lose all ability to throw punches after being struck once. They have no endurance, no will power and no discernable skills whatsoever. That was Peeta during round one. In theory, he should have been able to offer something given he got a pretty good score from the judges, but instead, he flopped around like an injured fish and eventually got pretty creative with hiding spots. Good for him, I guess.

This time around, he actually, you know, helps the team to stay alive. He chokes out a guy in the water in hand to hand combat. He leads a few expeditions into the wilderness, one of which does not go well, and he doesn’t cower in the face of trouble. Yes, he’s still not Sylvester Stallone. At one point, he needs to be given mouth-to-mouth in order to start breathing again, but it’s still a giant leap in the right direction. He’s gone from a man I wouldn’t want on a hunting trip to one I’d let take a shift guarding the tent from bears. He certainly wouldn’t be able to stop them, but he could be trusted to alert other people before getting eaten.